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Beth-Baal-Meon (2)

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Beth-Baal-Meon

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The ruins of this place, the present Main, are of vast extent. They occupy the crests and slopes of four adjacent hills — one having evidently been the central city, and connected with the next by a wide causeway. The remains are of the ordinary type-foundations, fragments of wall, lines of streets, old arches, many carved stones, caves, wells, and cisterns innumerable. Some curious cavernous dwellings, built up with arches and fragments of old columns, are still occasionally used by the Arabs as folds and sleeping- places. The position of Baal-meon, the name ("The habitations of Baal"), and the commanding views gained from the neighboring peaks, would seem to show that here are the very "high places of Baal" to which Balak king of Moab led Balaam, that "he might see the utmost part of the people," and curse them for him (Numbers 22:41). Balak met Balaam on the banks of the Arnon; he led him thence to Kirjath-huzoth ("the Town of Streets"), which may perhaps be identical with the ruin Kureiyat ("the Towns"), situated at the southern base of Jebel Attfards; and then on the next day Balak brought the prophet to "the high places of Baal," that he might obtain a full view of the Israelites. See Tristram, Land of Moab, p. 316 sq.